Buchi Emecheta, (born July 21, 1944, Lagos, Nigeria) Igbo writer whose novels deal largely with the difficult and unequal role of women in both immigrant and African societies.

Emecheta was married at age 16 and immigrated with her husband to London in 1962. The problems she encountered in London during the early 1960s provided background for the books that are called her immigrant novels. Her first two books, In the Ditch (1972) and Second-Class Citizen (1974)—both later included in the single volume Adah’s Story (1983)—introduce Emecheta’s three major themes: the quests for equal treatment, self-confidence, and dignity as a woman. Somewhat different in style, Emecheta’s later novelGwendolen (1989; also published as The Family) also addresses the issues of immigrant life in Great Britain.

Most of Emecheta’s other novels—including The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977), The Joys of Motherhood (1979), Destination Biafra (1982), and Double Yoke (1982)—are realistic novels set in Africa that explore Emecheta’s favourite themes. Perhaps her strongest work, The Rape of Shavi (1983), is also the most difficult to categorize. Set in an imaginary idyllic African kingdom, it gives an account of the events that occur when European refugees from a nuclear disaster arrive.

Emecheta also wrote an autobiography, Head Above Water (1986), and several works of children’s and juvenile fiction.

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people living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria who speak Igbo, a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Igbo may be grouped into the following main cultural divisions: northern, southern, western, eastern or Cross River, and northeastern. Before European...

...injects the dimension of fantasy through the character of the goddess Uhamiri, who is a mythic counterpart to the real-life Efuru. In The Slave Girl (1977) the novelist Buchi Emecheta tells the story of Ojebeta, who, as she journeys from childhood to adulthood, moves not to freedom and independence but from one form of slavery to another. Okri blends fantasy and...